It turns out that looking at the aggregation of billions of search queries people type into Google reveals something about our curiosity, our thirst for news, and perhaps even our desires. Considering all that has occurred in 2005, we thought it would be interesting to study just a few of the significant events, and names that make this a memorable year. (We’ll leave it to the historians to determine which ones are lasting and which ephemeral.) We hope you enjoy this selective view of our collective year.

myTunes Redux is a program that allows you to download music made available by iTunes. It allows you to search everything on the network at once, live, and works with all versions of iTunes (from 4.1 through 4.7).

This program will most likely only work on Windows XP (and probably Windows 2000). No mac version exists and I'm not making one, so stop asking.

Michael Mann has a way with storytelling. Here's a guy who eschews the non-stop action thriller pace of say, Steven Spielberg, for moments in film that allow both characters and viewers moments of introspection. Moments accompanied, of course, by a killer soundtrack.

Made famous by Miami Vice and refined in many of his slick flicks like Heat and The Insider, Collateral is perhaps the best example to date of Mann's ability to let audiences interpret critical moments in the storyline using little more than music and cinematography.

A killer track + a cityscape = a moment inside the character's mind.

There's Max in the cab - struggling with his place in life as he has for much of the film. He lies to himself and to others about his plans and dreams, and we come to understand that Max isn't really going anywhere. When Vincent catches Max in his concocted version of reality and forces him to come to grips with his seemingly meaningless existence, there's dialogue between them, but then it all stops.

Cue "Shadow of the Sun" by Audioslave.

Max thinks for a moment, then he gets it.

The cab accelerates.

The music plays on.

We get it: Things are different.

The cab accelerates. Crash!

While other filmmakers might have used the same sequence (dialogue, speed run, crash), I can't think of any who allow both characters and viewers to reflect on the situation the way Mann does.

Call it a pregnant pause. Call it what you will. I think it rocks.

As Jason Hughes puts it, "The struggle against this threatening mindset is highlighted in Audioslave's music. While the song is playing, Max accepts Cruise's character's nihilistic worldview and intentionally crashes the car that they are both riding in. "What's the difference?" he says before the car crashes. His actions show a transition into Vince’s (Tom Cruise) way of thinking: "There's no good reason, there's no bad reason to live or to die ... Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars and a speck on one in a blink. That's us. Lost in space."

The same scenario would play out when Sonny and Rico would cruise in the Dino, Testarossa or cigarette boat. De Niro and Pacino did the same while cruising in Heat.

Having heard the Audioslave track "Shadow of The Sun" and remembering how much it rocks, I wanted to listen to it this morning. So, I dialled up Pandora, entered the track name and 5 songs into my new Audioslave "station," there it was.

Perfect.

====================Audioslave "Shadow of The Sun"

Once upon a timeI was on a mind to lay your burden downAnd leave you where you stoodYou believed I couldYou’d seen it done beforeI could read your thoughtsAnd tell you what you sawAnd never say a wordBut now that is goneOver with and doneAnd never to return

I can tell you whyPeople die aloneI can tell you whyThe shadow on the sun

Staring at the lossLooking for the causeAnd never really sureNothing but a holeTo live without a soulAnd nothing to be learned

I can tell you whyPeople go insaneI can show you howYou could do the sameI can tell you whyThe end will never comeI can tell you onThe shadow on the sun

Blogger Web Comments for Firefox is an extension that makes it easy to see what bloggers are saying about a page you're viewing in Firefox and even make your own blog post about it, all without leaving the page you're on.

As you visit any given page in Firefox, a comment panel featuring blog posts linking to this page will appear on the bottom right of your browser. Clicking on any of the entries will open that blog post in a new tab.

This is awesome ... Easily makes my short-list for 2005 Best of the Web. If you like music and have an internet connection, this is a must-have.

Quoting from here: A personalized radio station (or set of channels) which recommends new songs based on user-selected favorites. The interface is so clean, so slick, and so easy-to-use it will blow you away. And the behind-the-scenes algorithm powering the recommendation engine (from the Music Genome Project) really works.

Review: Home pages are making a comeback, thanks to AJAX and Flash-powered "desktop" applications. Inside, a look at seven desktop and homepage apps vying for your news feeds, bookmarks, and sticky notes.

The Superficial is a brutally honest look at society and its obsession with the superficial. It is not satire. It is not social commentary. It is the voice of our society at its worst. It is first impressions without sense of social obligation. It is the truth of our generation. It is ugly racism. It is jealousy. It is honest.

On Wednesday 30th November Betfair was again named the 2005 Company of the Year at the CBI Growing Business Awards - the first time any company has won this prestigious award twice.

The judges praised Betfair’s strong financial growth and market leading position and confirmed the CBI’s view of the company as one of Britain’s most respected businesses.

Betfair Chief Operating Officer David Yu said: “To win this prestigious award once is a great achievement but to retain it for a second year is remarkable. It is a fantastic endorsement of both our product and our business and we look forward to maintaining the staggering growth that the company has already experienced over the coming years.”

Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI, commented on the Growing Business Awards: “Thriving and innovative smaller companies are the backbone of British industry but all too often they are unsung heroes. These Awards are an invitation to share their success stories with us and help pave the way for even greater achievements.”

Seems as though the new Y! mail beta project has been out for a while, but for whatever reason (European IP?), I'm just getting access to the new product.

It is very cool.

I've been thinking of changing to another online solution or reverting back to a desktop mail client for my personal messages for a while, as I was getting very tierd of Y! Mail's tierd interface. It has been much improved, and the new interface and features are quite good. Here's a round-up of a few reviews:

Welcome, internet, to The Consumerist, the latest title from Gawker Media. The Consumerist loves to shop, and is reconciled to utilities, but hates paying for shoddy products, inhumane customer support, and half-assed service.

And, yes, the protagonist on the show was my bartender for a few years...

Then, if you are free this coming Sunday the 11th and in town, please come to Mona Bar at 8:00 p.m. to see the real thing on a big screen TV with the music track and all. Mona is on Amsterdam between 108 and 109.

There's this bird called Mary, yeah? She's a virgin (wossat then?) She's not married or nuffink, but she's got this boyfriend, Joe, innit? He does joinery an' that. Mary lives with him in a crib dahn Nazaref.

One day Mary meets this bloke Gabriel. She's like 'Oo ya lookin at?' Gabriel just goes 'You got one up the duff, you have.'

Mary's totally gobsmacked. She gives it to him large 'Stop dissin' me yeah! I ain't no Kappa-slapper. I never bin wiv no one!'

So Mary goes and sees her cousin Liz, who's six months gone herself. Liz is largin' it. She's filled with spirits, Barcardi Breezers an' that. She's like 'Orright, Mary, I can feel me bay-bee in me tummy and I reckon I'm well blessed. Think of all the extra benefits an' that we are gonna get.' Mary goes 'Yeah, s'pose you're right'

Mary an' Joe ain't got no money so they have to ponse a donkey, an' go dahn Beflehem on that. They get to this pub an' Mary wants to stop, yeah? To have her bay-bee an' that. But there ain't no room at the inn, innit? So Mary an' Joe break an' enter into this garridge, only it's filled wiv animals. Cahs an' sheep an' that.

Then these three geezers turn up, looking proper bling, wiv crowns on their heads. They're like 'Respect, bay-bee Jesus', an' say they're wise men from the East End.

It's all about to kick off when Gabriel turns up again an' sez he's got another message from this Lord geezer. He's like 'The police is comin an' they're killin all the bay-bees. You better nash off to Egypt.' Joe goes 'You must be monged it you think I'm goin' dahn Egypt on a minging donkey' Gabriel sez 'Suit yerself, pal. But it's your look out if you stay.' So they go dahn Egypt till they've stopped killin the first-born an' it's safe an' that.

Then Joe and Mary and Jesus go back to Nazaref, an' Jesus turns water into Stella.